Give teachers the right to defend ourselves

Dan Rodricks' column urging stronger gun control measures merely fans the flames of alienation and distrust between gun control advocates and gun owners at a time when what we need are reasoned, pragmatic solutions for preventing future Newtowns and Virginia Techs ("Stand vigil for gun victims and new laws," Dec. 23).

Mr. Rodricks wants the government to confiscate assault-style weapons even from people who legally own them, and to make owning one a felony. All this would be done on the absurd assumption that taking guns away from law-abiding citizens will stop another tragedy.

There are already more than 300 million guns in the US. Virtually all semiautomatic pistols — not assault rifles — that are purchased for home defense hold ammunition clips with multiple bullets at least as powerful at close range as the bullets used at Newtown. Are they next on Mr. Rodricks' confiscation list?

I've been a college professor for 41 years, and here's the reality from the classroom, not the columnist's desk: If someone enters my classroom armed and intent on killing my students or me, we are trapped. There's only one way out and the "bad guy" owns it.

I have seconds to remove that threat. Give me the good guy — the training and authority to "conceal carry" and use what is, by far, our best chance of survival: A loaded firearm.